Field
The described embodiments relate to automation techniques, including automated integration and probabilistic control of a diverse set of electronic devices in an environment.
Related Art
Electronic devices have increasingly more powerful computing and communication capabilities, which allow users at arbitrary locations to interact with each other and to access vast amounts of information. The computing and communication capabilities have resulted in a large and growing set of applications that perform a variety of tasks, as well as a significant increase in mobile and online financial transactions. Consequently, electronic devices are increasingly popular. Indeed, in many environments (such as homes or offices) there are often multiple electronic devices.
In principle, the widely available electronic devices offer opportunities to collect and aggregate useful information from multiple different electronic devices, to perform complicated tasks using the capabilities of the different electronic devices and, more generally, to provide a wide variety of value-added services. These opportunities are expected to increase significantly as the computing and communication capabilities are included in replacements for legacy or ‘background’ electronic devices (such as refrigerators, utility equipment, furnaces, thermostats, smoke detectors, etc.) that are disseminated throughout people's homes and offices but that they currently interact with infrequently. Indeed, in the so-called ‘Internet of Things,’ it has been proposed that integrated networks of electronic devices can be used to further transform people's lives.
In practice, it has proven difficult to implement the Internet of Things and, thus, to achieve these ambitious goals. In particular, the electronic devices are usually from different manufacturers or providers and, because of their different functions, often have very different application programming interfaces and commands. Even though electronic devices typically include standardized network interfaces (such as a network interface that is compatible with an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard, Bluetooth® (from the Bluetooth Special Interest Group of Kirkland, Wash.), and/or another type of wireless network), the diversity of the electronic devices is often an obstacle to integrating the electronic devices into an interactive network.
Consequently, users are often forced to manually integrate electronic devices. However, even after electronic devices are integrated together, the different commands used by different electronic devices usually make it difficult for users to control the electronic devices. For example, in an interactive network with multiple electronic devices, a user could be forced to learn or keep track of multiple different user interfaces or commands. Therefore, existing approaches for integrating and controlling electronic devices can be time-consuming, expensive and frustrating for users, which degrades the user experience.